SnT Enters into Collaborative Fintech Agreement with LHoFT

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Published on Thursday, 21 June 2018

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Luxembourg House of Financial Technology Foundation (LHoFT) to develop research and collaborate on projects within the field of fintech for the benefit of Luxembourg’s financial services community.

A similar memorandum of understanding was signed between the LHoFT and the University of Luxembourg's Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF).

Under the terms of the MoUs, researchers from both SnT and FDEF will be granted access to the LHoFT facility at the recently inaugurated House of Startups (HoST). They will interact and work with the LHoFT team as well as the growing number of fintech firms in residence at the facility and the broader ecosystem, including financial institutions that are regularly making use of the Hot Desks at Luxembourg’s dedicated fintech innovation hub.

Researchers at SnT are already working on a number of topics in fintech, using technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and Natural Language Processing to develop new solutions for Know Your Customer, Initial Coin Offerings and compliance and regulation. The latter are also dealt with at FDEF where researchers are exploring the law and regulation of fintech and regtech as well as studying their impact on financial institutions. Bringing research into closer proximity with business will help to better connect the two sectors, providing researchers with invaluable experience of working hand-in-hand with business and, likewise allowing business to leverage the talents and knowledge available at the University of Luxembourg.

“We are very excited to implement this collaboration with the University of Luxembourg’s SnT and Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance. We believe there is tremendous value that can be created by combining the specialist skill sets and knowledge offered by these great research institutions with the practicalities of the business environment to better develop new projects, technologies and solutions for Luxembourg’s financial services industry. The LHoFT is the perfect place to bring research and financial services’ businesses together,” said Nasir Zubairi, CEO of the LHoFT.

“At SnT we put emphasis both on aligning research with industry from the earliest stages and on translating scientific knowledge into real-world innovations,” commented Professor Björn Ottersten, Director of SnT. “This agreement fits in perfectly with these aims. It allows our researchers to find new applications for their inventions and creates opportunities for fintech entrepreneurs to draw upon the deep technical expertise and recent research advances from our research institution.”

“The cooperation between FDEF and the LHoFT started with a lecture series in 2016-2017, even before the LHoFT officially opened its doors. From the get-go, we were interested in bringing together academic knowledge, world-leading research and practical expertise. Giving our researchers the opportunity to meet with the LHoFT’s team and the start-ups they support on a more regular basis will facilitate this exchange and provide new avenues for knowledge transfer,” added Dirk Zetzsche, professor at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance and holder of the ADA Chair in Financial Law (Inclusive Finance) at the University of Luxembourg, who was one of the initiators of the new agreement.